The invention relates to a method for operating an electronic appliance, to a charging device for charging a battery of an electronic appliance, and to a motor vehicle.
Electronic appliances such as, for example, what are referred to as laptops, PDAs (personal digital assistants), mobile radio appliances, in particular mobile phones, smart phones or tablet PCs are sufficiently known from the general related art. Such an, in particular portable, electronic appliance has a battery and a charging device for charging the battery with electric current. By the battery, at least one component of the electronic appliance can be supplied with electric current without the charging device being electrically connected via a cable to a power network which is external to the electronic appliance.
The component which is to be supplied with electric current is, for example, a computing device for executing a computer program, which is usually also referred to as an application or an app. A mobile radio appliance can also be connected to at least one radio network using radio technology.
If the electronic appliance is not coupled via its charging device to a charging apparatus, referred to as a charging unit, which is external to the electronic apparatus, for charging the battery, the computing device is, for example, supplied with electric current from the battery and the battery therefore discharges successively. In order subsequently to charge the battery again, the charging device of the electronic appliance is coupled to the charging apparatus, which is or can be in turn coupled to a power source, for example in the form of the power network, which is external to the electronic appliance. As a result, the battery can be supplied with current from the electric power source and as a result charged.
Modern mobile radio appliances have functionalities which go beyond merely making telephone calls. Such functionalities are, for example, a wireless data transmission, for example in the form of a data transmission via infrared rays, via Bluetooth or by radio via WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), which is made available by a transmission module. In addition, such a wireless transmission can be a positioning functionality, for example via GPS (Global Positioning System) by which the position of the mobile radio appliance on the earth can be determined in a wireless fashion. If these functionalities are activated, they bring about increased consumption of electric current compared to their respective deactivated state. On account thereof, the battery is more quickly discharged. Therefore, the deactivation of these functionalities is appropriate when they are not required.
Other electronic appliances also have functionalities which are useful to a user of the electronic appliance in many situations but which can appropriately be deactivated in some situations in order to save current stored in the battery. This may be case, for example, of a wireless data transmission of a laptop, which does not always have to be activated.
However, if the functionalities are deactivated and they are required, it is then sometimes necessary for the user to make a variety of laborious inputs into the electronic appliance on the electronic appliance in order to activate the functionalities again. This need-oriented activation and deactivation of the functionalities therefore gives rise to an interaction of the user with the electronic appliance which is time consuming in total.